Master Series: Habits: How To Create Good Daily Habits

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Habits: How To Create Good Daily Habits

Hello and welcome to the moonshots master series. It's episode four. I'm your, co-host Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by Mark Pearson Freelance. Good morning, mark. Good morning, Mike. This is a particularly exciting episode for us today. Isn't it. If there's any topic genre, ways of thinking about things and frameworks it's habits, this matters so much to every single one of us.

Doesn't it? It really does. Habit design is topic dues. You're here at the moonshot masseur series. We are going deep into a world of habits and my gosh, like habits. They really have revealed themselves to be one of the key things that moonshot has really need in the world. I think if you set about doing something challenging or remarkable shooting for the moon, [00:01:00] as we might say here, then you're going to have a big vision and you may have done some reading with a Simon Sinek, start with why, but then there's this big transition.

What on earth am I going to do today? Where do I start? And I believe mark, it is habits is the place where the business gets done. I agree. Episode show number one on our member series, we dug into motivation and we stuck into first principles thinking frameworks. Last time we got into teamwork, three huge topics.

And today this concept of habits is so interesting as well as exciting mind. Boy, we've got an action packed episode today. We have nine guru superstars authors. You name it to lay with some wisdom upon us, and we shall ask the question together, how are we going to [00:02:00] create habits for ourselves? We're going to get into the nasty, gritty, dirty slimy universe of actually applying ourselves to being the best version of ourselves.

How are we going to wake up, be the best? How are we going to see that right through to the end of the day? And mark. The next day or the next and the next. And it's not just your professional stuff, personal stuff, and everything else in between. This is about a holistic master class on creating habits, the things, the rituals that you do to unlock the very best version of yourself.

I think about it as creating the underlying conditions for your own personal satisfaction, fulfillment your success, whether it's waking up early or whether it's clearing your head at night before you go to bed, there's a lot that can happen in the space of that [00:03:00] time. And we're going to forensically break it all down.

We're going to look at experts. We're going to get inspired by the likes, of course of Tim Ferriss, Charles Duhigg, but don't forget, Tom Brady. We're also going to hear from the Grandmaster a successful happy. Mr. Stephen Covey the kind of a Maestro of the moment, Mr. Atomic habits (buy on amazon), Mr. James clear, and many others.

Mark. It is a onslaught. It is a smorgasbord of habit creation. So if you want to be your best at the start middle and end of the day, if you want to be great at work at home and all the places in between this show is for you. Yeah. And it's it's how habits are not only behaviors, things that we can put into practice from a physical perspective.

I think what's clear as we learn from these individuals and we get a lunar power dose of inspiration from all these [00:04:00] incredible individuals and the work that they've done, it demonstrates to us that these behaviors and these physical practices have a in an undeniable connection to our mindsets and how we go about our lives in a work situation, but also in a social family element habits really are.

If I'm going to put a big, old broad statement of Mike, they can be the blueprints to you becoming this best version of yourself. Once you've put them into practice and you stick at them and you persevere day-by-day. We have scoured the moonshots episodes. We have even found new superstars to inspire us.

So we are ready to hit you up with the most important part of any master series is where we kick it off with not only defining [00:05:00] habits, but why not get a little bit inspired. And the man to inspire us right now is Mr. Charles Duhigg author of the power of habit. Let's hear from him, Mr. Charles Duhigg and understand why habits.

Did you know that by studying shopper's habits, companies can predict what you want to buy. And sometimes that's a problem. A few years ago, for instance, a father walked into a target store in Minnesota, clutching an advertisement. He started yelling at the. Did you send this to my daughter? He asked the ad, contained all these coupons for baby clothes and bottles and formula and cribs.

She's still in high school and you're sending her ads for baby clothes. He screamed at the manager, or you trying to encourage her to get pregnant. The store manager apologized and a few days later called the guy to apologize again, the father was somewhat abashed. It turns out there's been some activities in my house that I wasn't aware of.

He told the manager, [00:06:00] I had a long conversation with my daughter. She's doing August. It turns out IOU and apology target had created a computer model. They could figure out which shoppers were pregnant just by studying their shopping habits. Identifying pregnant women is the holy grail of people with new babies are so tired that if you can get them inside your doors to buy bottles and formula, they'll end up buying everything else they need as well.

And if a new parent starts shopping targets, they'll keep coming back. Freaking goes. So how did target start marketing to parents before the baby arrived? Lots of people buy lotion, but a target data analysts noticed that women on Target's baby registry, certainly buying very large quantities of lotion in about their second trimester.

Someone else noticed that in about the 20th week pregnant women started loading up on vitamins. By crawling through the data target was able to identify about 25 [00:07:00] different items that when analyzed together would allow them to predict if someone was pregnant Target's program was so accurate that it could assign almost any regular shopper, a pregnancy prediction score.

But the problem with all this data as the father in Minnesota demonstrated is that target couldn't let on how much they knew after all shoppers might get. If they received an advertisement, making it clear that target was studying their reproductive plans. So how did target solve this problem? They started mixing in ads for bottles and formula with other products that had nothing to do with pregnancy like lawn mowers and wineglasses things that they knew a pregnant woman wouldn't necessarily be interested in.

As a result, the baby ads looked random and it worked. Women started using the coupons and targets, mom and baby sales exploding, the lesson habits matter, and we can either choose to shape our habits ourselves, or [00:08:00] we can wait until someone else shapes them for us. Oh, you can choose to identify and notice and control your habits, or you can let somebody else do it for you, Mike.

 If there was a clip that was going to launch you and I and our members into the concept and the understanding of habits no one better than Charles Duhigg to break it down for us. No, he definitely the book power of habit. And we'll have a link to that in the show notes, if you're interested in is really it is a defining piece of work.

 If you are really inspired by this show and want to go deeper, I would say the power of habit is a very good starting point. And I think it is a very important thing that comes up straight away from Charles Duhigg, which is obviously our habits, as we heard from that target story, reveal so much about us and obviously inform where we're going, what's happening in our [00:09:00] lives.

But I thought the twist at the end there, it's are you going to choose to control your habits? Are you going to choose to get up early in the morning or even more? So you're going to choose to go to bed early. So it's not so hard to get up in the morning. That's the choice to me. This is where the rubber hits the road.

 If you really want to do something great in any shape or form, any type of endeavor, you need to understand that you do have this choice. You have the choice to get yourself to bed nice and early and not watch that seventh episode on Netflix would be guilty of that. Stop at one. Yes, that's true.

And get yourself into. Take it even further, mark, you can choose not to have your phone in the room. I, you sleep so you sleep better. [00:10:00] You can get block-out blinds. So it's nice and dark. You can not eat food for at least 90 minutes before dinner. So your body's not digesting or getting any sort of release of sugar or whatever you can do.

Those are all your choices. And so you can have that better sleep. So you wake up better in the morning, so you can do a better job on your first tasks. These are all choices that we have, and that really frames the series. That's why I'm so excited to play that clip first. I really feel that habit is a choice and I think we have somebody who has taken the choice of habits to the next level.

I think that we have somebody who has achieved the greatest. Of all time status and he is a walking celebration of habit, isn't he? Yeah, that's right. If you're understanding from Charles Duhigg, this habits aren't necessarily your destiny, but there are things that you can [00:11:00] con control and transform this next individual.

Mike, none other than Mr. Tom Brady really brings it to life for us. He's an individual as we'll learn really does things differently. And this next clip that we're going to be inspired by as Tom Brady, teaching us and inspiring us to evolve through experience. Everyone has their different belief systems.

And I think everyone has their different opinions of those types of things that you talked about. Certainly as an athlete, I care very much what I put into my body. I think that I'm 38 years old. I'm not 22 anymore, so you're very sweet. Thanks. But I all those things are important and all the little things add up to be big things.

So when I'm trying to accomplish things professionally that in a lot of ways, you're in, I'm an unchartered territory, so I've got to do things differently. And I got to evolve over time. I've got to things that may have worked in the past. Maybe don't work as you move forward. So the lessons that I've learned through my own trial and error, I [00:12:00] think I'm at that point in my career, I'm very efficient with what I'm doing.

So I try to eat healthy. I try to get the right amount of rest. I try to do the right types of exercise so I can be on the field and be available. My team, I try to be as productive this time in my career as I was earlier, Tom Brady said it right there. Do he talked about choice. And what Brady does is he takes it further and he says all the little things add up.

Now I want to just remind those of you. We did shows on Charles Duhigg show 86, Tom Brady 1, 1 5, but I just want people to remember that Tom Brady is 44 playing in the NFL. He has one more bowls than any other player. He has [00:13:00] records like honestly, records coming out of his, you know what, and wait for this.

He is playing statistically like one of the best individual quarterbacks in the league this season. So just if you isolate him as an individual, and here's the crazy thing though, there's the other part? The, because he does so many things to be at his best. He influences the team around him. So check this out.

So he has been able to attract players to. His team, the Tampa bay Buccaneers that many other teams wanted, but everyone wants to come and play for Tom. He has more passing huts. He has more touchdown passes game started. He's been in more pro balls [00:14:00] and it's because all the little things add up and you know what mark, whether it's diet is fanatical about diet, the way he trains everything he does has been a celebration of habit.

And that's why he will play more years than any other player in history, in a mark, in a contact sport, in a brutal sport. This is not tennis is no golf. It is high collision contact, NFL football, and he. Is the ultimate habit, man is me. If anybody's going to inspire us to take ownership of those small little things, whether it's going to bed at a reasonable time, eating and drinking the correct things, it's going to be Tom Brady, isn't it.

 You've already listed all of his accolades and his behaviors and the games that he's played in this high-intensity context sport, [00:15:00] which I'm going to be honest, mark. I don't think I'd last, particularly long playing in that particular game, but he does bring to life what Charles Duhigg was teaching us and showing us in the power of habit book, which is all those little things add up.

And you are not beholden to a particular, maybe gene or bad practice that you've driven. Either from your parents or through your young childhood, he's saying just take ownership. Was it 44? And I'm still playing at the top of my game. Nobody else has done this. And the reason why I've done it is because I take ownership and I control food, drink, exercise, sleep.

And that I think proves to you and I, and our listeners that if you have this discipline and we'll come back to discipline a lot in today's show, if you've got the discipline, the ownership, the control over the way that maybe you react to things, your behavior, as [00:16:00] well as your patterns of thinking, you can then inform how you physically react as well as mentally react to all these different stimulus and experiences within your life.

Yeah it's remarkable. Isn't it? So he has actually incorporated his habits into the TB 12 method. I'll give you an idea of some of the things he does. So he only eats whole foods. He gets into bed at nine he's out of bed at six, he starts his morning by drinking half a liter of water with electrolytes.

He doesn't drink alcohol, except when he wins the super bowl where he famously had a few this is he does things like he only cooks with coconut oil. Like he gets down to that level. He does so much to engineer the outcome and it's his choice. [00:17:00] The most empowering thing I want you and our listeners to hear mark is these choices are ours to make, and this is why it's so damn exciting that, oh my gosh, as long as I start doing these things, and it's like this loop of focusing on your habits and your mindset, your habits, and your mindset, and letting them reinforce each other, let them build together so that you can be indestructible.

And the power of the systems is you can face adversity, challenge, unexpected things that go against you because Hey, that's life. But because you have the system because you have the habits, you'll come back, you'll bounce back. Is instant. It, these things don't beat you down, they just make you stronger.

Ah, now we're really getting into habits as a habits like compound and they actually make you even stronger because when you [00:18:00] see your habits help you overcome these challenges. That's when you become like Superman or superwoman, right? Yeah. Again, as he's calling out, you start to evolve. Just answer, react to these different things, the adversities, the challenges, and if you can reframe your behaviors and then start to see those moments as times to evolve, to grow, see them as opportunities to improve upon.

And I think this is really the crux of what a habit really is. You can utilize habits and patterns of behavior and thinking to your advantage where you can become much like Brady's corny out. I'm thinking of him right now in my mind, Mike, as a bit of a Terminator he's he's a well oiled engine is putting everything good into him.

And he's able to outperform people that are probably half his age because he's built up the compound benefits of doing it for so long. So his [00:19:00] exercise is his limbs, his movement it's as well as his resilience and stamina is going to be so much higher, those other individuals, because he's done it for so long and he's made it a habit to go out and work hard at doing all of these different things day by day, week by week.

And I think that's such a moment of inspiration that kind of sets us up perfectly to really dig into the concept of habits. Doesn't it? It does. So what I would say is apart from the athletic performance of Tom Brady, the other thing is because of his lifestyle is so heavy. Like he doesn't drink, he eats whole foods is into bed, early drinks, a ton of water.

 The interesting thing is with Tom Brady, everybody knows if there's two minutes to go and he's team is down by a few points, you just know he's going to. Because it's not any physical performance. He's [00:20:00] famous for studying film for hours and hours. So he knows every type of defense he's going to come up against.

He's seen it all before. My thing here is it can go beyond like these physical things like VIM, Hoff have a cold shower. It could be journaling, reflecting deep work. I even allocate time to family and friends, not only in my calendar, but in my to do is to ensure that I do these things because they make me feel good.

They connect me with the people that I love. You can apply this anywhere, but mark, if there is one moment of the day, you and I have talked about where we think habit forming is not only a great place to start, but perhaps very influential in how your entire day goes. What comes to mind. A little voice comes to mind with [00:21:00] with William H McRaven, with our Jurnee many individuals that we've dug into from a physical perspective, with training your body, as well as your mind, to the point of exhaustion, it's all about starting your mornings, Mike, this individual that we dug into, and we did a whole series actually on his books, Tim Ferriss really spent the time to talk to some of the best performers, not only in physical space, but also mental and business, to really understand what are the tools of these Titans (buy on amazon) and how do they make really good business decisions, best things that they can become in order to be the best version of themselves.

And this clip that we've got now from Tim Ferris is all about inspiring you and honor. To start by winning our mornings. One of the commonalities, one of the patterns that you spot really quickly, if you've interviewed hundreds of world-class performers and I [00:22:00] just interviewed 130 or so for my new book, tribal mentors (Buy on Amazon) is the fact that they have consistent morning routines.

They have some type of recipe of boot up sequence that they use to win the day in some fashion. And it ranges from for instance, mindfulness. And that could be mindfulness meditation, where you find, say Evan Williams, who is well-known for blogger, Twitter, also medium who spends time every morning as I do with some type of meditative practice could be insight.

A could be a transcendental meditation. You could use an app like Headspace. Jennica is a great place to start and it trains you. It allows you to practice becoming more aware and less reactive so that you're not thrown off by the unexpected challenges and problems of the day. And that helps you to be much more productive and much more.

You can achieve that in other ways, gratitude is a common element. So Tim O'Reilly, who's just an incredible entrepreneur thinker [00:23:00] writer and a thought leader in Silicon valley goes for a run and will take a photograph of a single flower on his run every morning. And this teaches you to pause and to assess how your say responding to things.

So that is a really beautiful practice that can be done with gratitude lists. I use something called the five minute journal, but Whitney Cummings, incredible standup comedian writer, and much more also has gratitude lists. And this is say naming three things that you're grateful for each morning, Tony Robbins does this.

Brian razor incredibly well-known. Iconic TV and film producer also does this. I think he's had 180 Emmy nominations or something like that. And that achieves very much the same thing of present state awareness and looking for the positive as opposed to fixating on the negative. And last but not least, you have say Jocko, Willink, retired Navy seal [00:24:00] commander who will lay out his clothing, his workout clothing the night before, so that there's no conscious decision required where.

Willpower or lack thereof could intercede his clothing is ready. He's already said his to-do list for the next day wakes up. He wakes up at four 30. That's not quite when I wake up and grabs the clothes, boom, directly to the gym. And he has a home gym where he does his work. So this is also very common where people recognize these very busy, very driven people that if it's inconvenient to work out, they probably won't do it.

So Jocko has a gym where barbell plates, squat rack, three sets of rings at different Heights, a kettle bell, and you're good to go. That's all you need. So there's a few of the things that I've seen repeatedly in different forums with hundreds of top performers that they use to win the morning so they can win the day.

Wow. If that is got to be I'm trying to think of [00:25:00] all the great clips we've listened to already and what we've got coming, mark. This one. Winning the morning, so you can win the day. This is a very moonshots clip because it just makes so much sense for me personally. I think I'm a morning guy by and large.

 So it suits me, but it just makes so much sense to get up early and to have this series of habits that set you up for success. And I reflect to the earlier, I would say probably about 15 years ago, 20 years ago. I knew that I needed to get up and at it and work hard, but that was about as far as my habit system was.

But now. Having studied this so much. It's crazy. I think my wife is just oh my gosh, [00:26:00] you and your morning rituals is sane, but it's just what I need to be feeling great. And to be working great. What's been your evolution of your kind of winning the morning. Tell me about that. From the, to me, it's the fact that you, that I can control the way that I start up.

I quite a Tim Ferriss referenced at the beginning of that clip to the the boot up sequence. So if you we all want to wake up on the right side of the bed. Do you remember that old adage? And I think that. Moment. When you wake up in the morning, you are completely in control.

You're not at the behest of a meeting. Hopefully you're not at the best of the meeting at 6:00 AM. You're not distracted with your to-do list. Quite yet. You've got this moment of clarity and you can control how you [00:27:00] prepare for your day. And this idea for me is control. And if I don't have the control of how I'm able to set myself up and how I react to things, maybe I've got lots of pent up energy.

Great. I can utilize that and go and exercise. I can go for a run and I can utilize it in a positive way because I'm controlling how I can go out and use it rather than allow the Pence of energy to be maybe I'm anxious or stress. Okay. That's great. Channel it into something physical. And what I quite like to do is not only as similar to Tom Brady's clip, actually, I quite like to take ownership and go to bed at a very early reasonable time.

So I'll go to bed at 9, 9 30, actually. And I like doing that because it's my way of almost book-ending the day by being able to connect. Control when I go to bed. Likewise, when I wake up my morning, [00:28:00] ritual is probably a little bit similar to yours. Mike. I like setting up the day with exercise because then I know I've got it in before I need to start working.

I'll go for a run. Maybe I'll do something at home or go to the gym. And that's then a moment of completion, I've done something I've achieved something prior to then getting into lots of the physicalities of it's almost in very simple terms, it's almost, you've had a ton of wins before 9:00 AM.

That's yes, exactly. Like how good is that? Another thing is if you work out your ritual, what time you'd like to wake up and so forth once you know that, then you're really good at planning your day because you can start to insert time for deeper. Insert time for exercise.

 And I would say I was more of [00:29:00] a victim. I wasn't really in control so much. Some 10, 20 years ago, I just worked really hard. It was just a blitz of effort and it wasn't particularly smart or intentional. I think now I'm very aware of taking steps for continued sustained effort, particularly if I have a lot of big presentations or deliverables, I need to have habits that allow me to come down off those workloads to manage that workload.

I think that's, again, that's a choice. So I think I was a little bit, my timetable was running me. 10 20 years ago. Whereas now I run my time at timetable much more, and it feels good. Exactly. And I think this concept of winning the morning, winning the day, what it does for me is it builds in [00:30:00] a moment of confidence and almost pride, right?

I've done it. I've achieved it. I planned my day. I've done my exercise. I've had a good breakfast. Maybe I've had a great cup of coffee, whatever it is. Okay, great. I've done that. Now, anything can come along because I know that I've already had that little bit of when I've got that little bit of confidence, I can utilize that now going into the rest of my morning and the rest of my day.

Yeah. And here's the funny thing. So what happens for me is so in order to wake up and have time to do the things that I need to do to win the morning, I have to get into bed at the right time. But then you can start to say, okay I'm not going to have any devices in my bedroom. Then you can say, I'll only do the Kindle because it's eating and it's much easier on the eyes and it doesn't have an led or an LCD that kind of keeps you awake.

And then you can start doing things like I'm going to make [00:31:00] sure that I don't have food for 90 minutes before, before bed. And then you can say, okay, when I finished work, I really want to spend some time. I need to call my mom. I need to do these different things, whatever it is. And then all of a sudden you're like, okay before I wrap up work, I need to make sure I have these rituals and habits checking the agenda for the day tomorrow.

And then all of a sudden you're like, what would be a good lunch? And then you're back to the morning again. And it's this big cycle. This is how pervasive your habit design can be. It can be throughout all parts of your day. And Matt I'll tell you, what's really crazy is I notice that when I break that habit system on the weekend, is that for example, if the classic one where I think we, a lot of us do is we change our sleep times on the weekend.

 Does that something that you've done before? [00:32:00] Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. Why do you think it can be so rough on Monday morning is because you broke your sleep system. So what I've noticed, depending on my social commitments, if I'm. To keep close to my weekly time in bed on the weekend. Guess what?

Mark? I feel even better on the weekends. Yeah, I think you're, I think this is a really interesting idea. Isn't it maintain? And it approves this concept of what a habit, the power of habits can really be. They are sustained behaviors that you do every single day and then the compound effect. You don't just do it for a short period of the week and then you stop for a few days and then you come back to it by doing it every single day, every single morning.

 I'm the same as you Mike, sometimes on weekends, I'll actually type. Into my calendar, what behaviors and what things I'll be doing on the weekend, [00:33:00] because it's a reflection of how I prepare and organize myself during the week as well. So I block out exercise or I block out life admin, calling, family and so on.

 And if anything, it's a relief because then I know what is the, what do I need to achieve? Great. I feel confident I'm going into it. Now I'm going to follow the same pattern of going to bed of journaling in the evening. And we'll talk about all these different practices, Mike, later in the show, as we get into adaption and making part of our days every day.

But it's really interesting to totally be inspired by Duhigg by Brady and by Ferris at this point of the show. And it just reinforces to me and hopefully to our listeners, that habits are the way of taking ownership of your day and being able to control the way that you react to things. Yes. So it's interesting.

 Tim Ferris was mentioning. He's talked to so many people and [00:34:00] he's you know what? They all, there's a really strong pattern of having some mood up sequence ritual morning ritual. So they can, if they win that morning, they can win the day. And I think this is like just bringing it home, that, that habit design and taking control of that.

That's what the winners do. Look at Brady. He's like he's in bed at nine and doesn't drink. Come on. This guy has got six Superbowls, more than any other player in history, and he's still getting into bed at night. How good is that? Now? What's really interesting is what we're able to do now is to move into the second part of the show, where we go much deeper into understanding how this really works.

And there's this big relationship between how you think and how you behave and the choices that you make around your habit design. So what's really fun for us is that we are actually able to go into[00:35:00] another great guy from the moonshots Daniel Conaman and he has this fantastic book that is all about thinking fast and slow.

So what we have to appreciate is that mindset is essential here. If you want to have the right behaviors and there are definitely interlinked and interdependent. Now, what is really important is to shift yourself out out of that, the subconscious just doing stuff, but like I was describing the early part of my career and how you can take much more control of how you think the decisions you make and those decisions can be directly affecting your habits.

So let's now listen to Mr. De. Your book makes use of a very useful analogy. In fact, the analogy is built into the title, thinking fast and slow system. One is thinking fast system two is thinking slow. What's the [00:36:00] difference between the two systems and why is it important for business decision makers to understand the difference?

 System one is essentially what comes up. It's automatically in your memory. When I say two plus two, something comes through into your head. When I say a mother, an emotion comes so all these thing that are automatic, that's what I call system. And you have no control of it because it's automatic and involuntary system to the slower thinking is distinguished, really not so much, but by the fact that it's slow, though, it's pretty slow, but by the fact that it's effortful and deliberate, so what you can do deliberately you do in system two, and you can do, you can control yourself, control your thoughts perform complicated computations.

Those things are activities and system two. So system one does [00:37:00] most of the mental work happens automatically. We don't have to worry to where to put our mics foot or which word should come next. Some of the work and its important work is done by system two. When we slow down. This is a great breakdown.

I think Mike of the way that our brains and the way that our thoughts activate themselves towards this concept of habit forming, doesn't it, this idea of fast, automatic memory that tells me reactions, reactive moments in my day versus the ones. When I have that little bit of more reflection, time, slow thinking I put in deliberate and the full processes in order to make better behavior and better decisions.

 I think it's interesting. This is a, an analogy we have in software of working on the system or in the system. And I think we can just charge through [00:38:00] our day without giving much thought to the habits that might shape the day and slowing down and asking ourselves what's working. I think the way I would use this in the context of habits, mark.

I think it's quite interesting. We, when we did the show, Matthew McConaughey, do you remember he was talking about rereading your your journal, reading your journal and seeing what you were talking about. And number two is journaling in good times and bad cause he's, he said we often just journal in bad times.

So we think about what's bothering us, but if you journal in good times, I think from a habit system forming perspective, what you can do is you can say, Hey, which habits are really working for me, which are. And what am I missing when I'm feeling off? When I'm not feeling top of my game, what is missing now?

Personally, for me, like one of the key things is a good [00:39:00] sleep. I see a direct correlation between good sleep and faster runs. When I go from, when I go running in the mornings, it's crazy. It's definitely it's not just 5%. It's like a 20% difference. I have, I've been really sleep deprived and working super hard.

And coming in at six hours a night, within five days of that, I will see a massive decline in my running performance, like massive, like 25% on the other side, if I've had a week of really good sleeps, I can quite easily push up into personal best times. That's how I see the difference between just doing the thing.

Or thinking slow, reflecting on what's working well. And if things are not feeling good, what are you missing? Look at okay, what are the things that are not happening? What's affecting why I'm feeling like I'm not in a good place. I think that's the [00:40:00] power of habit to sign here is looking at what's working.

 To be in phatic, like to be religious about those habits. And if you're really feeling off, do quick study, do an inventory. What's not happening. Is it sleep? Is it food? Is it the company you're keeping? It could be a million different things. Yeah the build I'd have there. I, first of all, yeah, I'm exactly the same.

You don't want to catch me Mike, when I've had a poor night's sleep. In fact, I think you've seen me post long flights and it does affect my ability to string coherent sentences together. Fortunately, our listeners probably haven't heard that too many times. For me the slow thinking and the deliberate effort for behaviors and processes really benefit me with regards to preparation.

So if I, and again, I'm going to make that connection to journaling like you just did. If I've taken the time to reflect [00:41:00] on a situation, whether it's at work or at home. And I think about it and I break it down into its core, little fundamental pieces, I'm then able to react far better. When I'm in the situation that I have to provide a response.

So for example, if you and I are working on a project, the project is going to be in a better place. If we've been able to put in a little bit of time and effort to prepare a response or a way of approach, or a way of thinking about this particular situation. And I would say that Carmen's calling out with thinking fast and slow by saying, if you can control and take intentional steps towards the preparation prior to in this situation your day.

So you're setting yourself up for the day you're preparing for it. You'll then removing any of the uncertainties that can sometimes kind of hang out in the background of your mind. [00:42:00] If you're going for a run, maybe you haven't journaled, or you haven't put everything down onto paper, into a plan.

So you might be distracted by. You might be distracted going into a meeting, or if you haven't necessarily had time to reflect on a particular deliverable or a an approach that you want to coherently put across. But when you've put in the slow time of really digging into the details, really understanding things and making a habit of reflecting and Matthew McConaughey does rereading the good times, as well as the bad, then you're more capable of recognizing what are the things that you want to change as well as those things that you want to celebrate.

Does that make sense? It really does. It really does. I think the role of reflection and habit design again. These are big, main shots. yeah, it's huge. Like we said, [00:43:00] at the beginning of this show, Mike habits is such a consistent and important DNA structure within all of the moonshot show, whether it's the weekly show or the master series habits for you and I, and for our listeners are, it's just so important to get, it is. It really is. And I tell you. And it's not before time, it feels like now is the moment to bring perhaps the heavyweight champion of habit design. He is the timeless grand master of habit design, Mr. Stephen Covey, doesn't it? Yeah. This next clip we've got from another huge powerhouse. It's Stephen Covey and his book, the seven habits of highly effective people (buy on Amazon), which Mike we actually did a series on, we had to break it down into two parts.

I know Timisoara for one shirt. There was so many unbelievably valuable habits that Stephen Covey calls out in his book, seven habits of highly effective people. And this clip is really revealing to you [00:44:00] and I, and to our listeners that we should consider beginning with the end in mind, where do we get our sense of who we are?

Where do we get our sense of what our life is about? Is it not. From social mirrors, parents, siblings, teachers, leaders, the media heroes models. Isn't that possibly the case of a mistaken identity. Think about it. Ask yourself, where do I get my knowledge of myself and what my vision in life is? What is it that I am really [00:45:00] about?

What is truly important to me, inhabit to begin with the end in mind is a clear. And powerful declaration that you are the guardian, the protector of your identity of your future. In essence habit, one is the awareness that you are the programmer. It's the budding awareness that the best way to predict your future is to create it, have it, to decides what your life is about.

And everything would flow from that. Every decision large and small would be a function of that. Not only what your identity is, but what your purpose is, what is your vision of what your [00:46:00] life is about? You are the programmer than write the program. You the program, right? The program. He's bringing it pretty heavy air.

He's take control damage. It is all on your shoulders. Don't be a victim. Start with the end in mind. My, how good is that? Yeah I love this and I feel like it connected so consistency with what we've been discussing in the shows so far, Mike beginning with the end in mind is all about creating a mental vision or a mental behavior that then proceeds your physical responses to things.

So whether it's journaling, whether it's waking up correct in the morning, it's all about taking the time to really get to speak, to get your house in order your mind, in order to take ownership of what you're going to be able to mask. And then decide how you're going to go about your [00:47:00] day instead of allowing the day to get away from you.

 How they say that it runs away from you and you can't control your time, your reactions, you don't have time to prepare. You don't have time to exercise or to journal. So therefore you don't have time to work on yourself. What ends up happening is everything then suffers and what Stephen Covey's cooling out in seven habits of highly effective people.

Specifically we've dug into habit. Number two, in that one, beginning with the end in mind, it's, he's really calling out this preparation that you can do on your own side in order to allow yourself to be the best version of yourself during the day. Yeah. And I think this is the central message to habit design is you control it.

Start with the outcome, start doing it, work on your mind. Do it some more work on the mindset even more, but don't see it as being a fixed thing. One of the really interesting things was in [00:48:00] James clear show that we did on atomic habits is he said don't think of diets as being a 30 day 60 day thing.

Think of them as a lifestyle. Think of any habit as a lifestyle that you're continually iterating being 1% better. And I think this is really at the heart of it. Don't just think because you wake up early every morning. And go for a run. You won't be doing a marathon in a few weeks, but you may be in a few months or a year.

But I think the thing that has really, that really keeps me going is the knowingness that the thing I'm doing today is part of what I have decided is the outcome that I'm looking for, the long-term goal, vision or ambition that I have. So then it becomes insanely satisfying to run 5k. When in the end, you want to run 30 K, you want to run a marathon, but I ran a 5k today.

[00:49:00] And last week I was only doing 4.5. That's great that's progress. And I think this is how we can be resilient, how we can stay the course and not quit. And then this is where David Goggins really comes into it is. Those mornings where you wake up and you're feeling tired and you're meant to have a run day.

God. But it's the choice to say no I'm going to stick with my habits, the system that will give me success. And sometimes you run that 5k and it was not fast, but at least your brand, at least you kept the habit, right? Yeah. On we lucky Mike that there's been so many incredible individuals who have broken it down and study.

 These habit designs and these ways of maximizing the time that we all have in our days in order to be that best version. Totally. I would say that if Covey is the all-time classic, who do [00:50:00] you say is the contemporary man of the moment when it comes to habits? You gave a little bit of a teaser away just then it's all about minister 1%.

It's all about the atomic habits of improving day by day in order to achieve a lifetime of success in the long run. So this next clip Mike from show 85 was none of that. The Mr. James clear our contemporary individual and study of everything that's good around habits. And what James Claire's gonna break down for us is how we should actually focus on creating systems rather than going.

Most people are familiar with the story of the good Samaritan stopping along the side of the road to help help a fallen person, help someone in need. Princeton, their theology school decided to run this experiment and they brought in a bunch of theology students. They said, all right, we're all familiar with the story of the good Samaritan.

We're going to break you up into groups. And you're going to go teach in different rooms across campus. You're going to teach this story. And so they started talking about how they were going to deliver the presentation so on. And they had a couple of different cohorts, the [00:51:00] one cohort they said, all right, just go ahead and go off and and deliver the presentation.

So they went off to their rooms. The second one, though, they did something interesting. They sent the group off, but on their way to the they send the group off and they said, by the way, we're running a little bit behind, right? You don't have very long to get there. It takes about 10 minutes.

You only got five, so we need to hurry. You're probably already going to be late. So they're in a rush. They know they're going to go give this presentation on the way they planted an actor on the on the campus. And this actor is laying on the grounds, heard moaning in pain. And so they screened.

And then they cry out and every single group went right past the person in need to go give a presentation about helping a person in need, right? The one person even stepped over the guy who was in pain in order to get there. Now, the point of this, and what I'd like to start talking about now is the danger of being goal-focused and goal oriented.

These people had a goal, to [00:52:00] deliver a presentation and they were so one-sided. So narrow-minded so focused on that goal, that they miss the bigger picture in the perspective of what they should have been doing in the first place. And I think that this can be a danger of goals often. And so instead I would like to encourage us to focus on systems rather than goals.

Here's some examples. If you're a coach, your goal is to win a championship, but your system is what your team does at practice each day. If you're a writer, your goal might be to write a book, maybe even write a bestselling book, but your system is how you write each week. The schedule that you. If you're an entrepreneur, your goal could be to build a million dollar business.

So we're $10 million business, but the system is a sales and marketing process that you have. The systems are what actually make the difference. There would drive the results. And what I've seen having goals is great. Having a vision, having a dream is nice. It's important to know where you're going and where you're headed.

It's important to have some clarity of focus, to know that we're moving in this direction, but once you know that having to go on paper makes very little difference and committing to the system and [00:53:00] showing up every day drives a lot of results. The system. Ah, oh my gosh. So isn't it. Wasn't that amazing that people in that anecdote that he told that those students were so obsessed about getting to give the talk and being a good Samaritan, that they got to be good Samaritans visual metaphor, isn't it.

And I think I've done exactly the same. I'm not obviously the same situation, but when you're so focused on, let's say putting out a fire. Oh, I've got this emergency. I've got to jump on it right away. Or, oh, I'm really focused on delivering this bit of work. What happens is everything else gets pushed to the side and that the things that get pushed to the side could be other projects.

They could be ways of thinking about the bigger picture on a single particular project, or it could be family stuff or personal stuff. [00:54:00] You'll be so focused on one particular moment and that you're completely missed this bigger picture. That actually is far more arguably important than the then perhaps that goal already was.

I think it's a really great Conflict. It goes a little bit against, I think, where I've been trying to focus my work on over my career, Mike, which is all about achieving this target, it's going out, getting it right. And actually taking a step back and pausing. And James Claire says really thinking about the bigger picture and thinking about the system to get to that goal is far more important.

Yeah. Yes. System. So if we apply his habit system thinking he's got some great little practical tips, I think that can help us all. He says, make it obvious. Make it attractive, [00:55:00] make it easy and make it satisfying. All right. So we've making it obvious. He's if let's just take journaling as the example, something that you and I speak about a lot, put the journal on the desk, let's say you're a morning journal the night before you go to sleep, make sure the journal is right there on the desk.

It's like Tim Ferriss said like some people not only put their gym gear right next to the bed. I've even heard stories of people sleeping in their running gear. So when they wake up, they just wake up and walk out there. They're ready to go. That's how obvious the habit is. Okay. So that's a good one. Make it attractive.

Now w when you think about Making journaling attractive. I think you've got to go to journaling about things that are [00:56:00] on your mind. Try and get as close to what is on your mind right now, right? Yeah, for me, in fact, I remember Mike, when I was trying to make journaling a habit, at the very beginning, the way I started by making it attractive was to almost document the events of the.

 Oh, in the morning I did this in the afternoon. I did that in the evening. I did this and gradually over time, one side started to enjoy the process of reflecting and starting to enjoy the and finding a more attractive sitting down, writing about these different events. Then I was able to pivot it slightly to then focus on the things that I wanted to journal about.

So things that I found really fun or things that I found really difficult and what I was going to do going forward, or the next day in order to continue [00:57:00] improving on that particular maybe challenge or opportunity, but starting by making it just that little bit easier or sorry, maybe a little bit more attractive was the way that, that I first began getting it into kind of a habit system.

Yes. Yeah. And so make it obvious. Make it attractive now, the making it easy bit. If we really want to understand habit design keeping with the theme of journaling, don't worry about spelling and form. Yes. Just get it. How mark get it out of the system. If it is just a word, do you remember? I gave you this advice.

Just write one word. And actually when we did, when you did reveal that tip, that's also one of the techniques I began doing at the very beginning as well, Mike making it super simple. Just one word. Great tip. Yep. And still to this day, I can write very cohesive page in a journal, [00:58:00] or I can just have a few bullets that are different things in different ideas in my journaling take different form.

Just if I'm running, sometimes I go fast. Sometimes I go slow. I do. I just run the route that, that, that is calling me. And sometimes with running, just like the journaling, it wasn't the best run. Wasn't the fastest run, but I ran nonetheless like today. I had lots to get done before we started the show, so I just ran 5k.

That's it? Boom. It was nice. And was it the fastest? No. What, knowing that I started the show having already done a run, that was a really good win for the day. I think I won the morning, so hopefully I'll win the rest of this day. And I think if we do those three things as James clear points out and he's booked, I could obvious, attractive and easy, [00:59:00] then it becomes quite satisfying.

And then all of a sudden you start really getting into it. So you really start. In the case of journaling, writing around all sorts of different things when it comes to running, you run different routes. Maybe you try and go for a personal best longest distance, a fastest pace. There's so much to it.

 If you make it hard to find your journal in the morning if you don't have a clear system of what to write about, so you spend 10 minutes thinking what am I going to write about? Or if you're like fanatical about grammar and spelling, and then before it is not a very fun thing to do.

Is it? I think it's all about finding ways of lowering the barriers yes. For you to do it right. If it's very going right to just doing it. Yes, exactly much. Like Ross actually was telling us in show 1 49, [01:00:00] 1 49, Mike, on the weekly show, he was saying, just go out and. Yeah, go out and make something happen.

And I think this is what James Claire's really trying to break down. And until their habits just find a way of doing it day by day and gradually that compound interest will add up in time. It really well now here on the master series, which is just for our members. We're so keen to hear from you.

What systems are you using for your habit design? I love to put my all my daily habits are in my to do application. It's called to-do list and they, I am still reminding myself to go for a run. I am still reminding myself to call my mother. These are all the habits that make me a bit better. Really keen to hear from our listeners smart and what our members doing to motivate themselves, to get a deeper understanding of habits.

So we want to hear from them don't yeah. I love hearing from our listeners and another personal shout out to [01:01:00] mark who is really vocal and loving giving us lots of recommendations, Mike, via the Patrion website, providing thoughts and inputs and recommendations. So thank you, mark, for having a real dialogue with us.

And I also want to build on what Mike was just saying get in touch with us. We on the moon. Master series were opening up about the habits that we do day by day, and what helps us become a 1% better each day or compound interest. So leave us things that work for you. You might have a completely different point of view and a completely different recommendation.

And that's great. We're here to learn out loud with you. So please get in touch with us, leave us your thoughts, your recommendations, and what, if it's a great recommendation, we will definitely add it to the long list and come back to it. Yeah, I think we've probably published at least a dozen shows that have been direct [01:02:00] recommendations from our listeners.

I'm in. Do you remember Dan Millman? The way of the peaceful warrior, that was a recommendation from Alyssa, a hugely popular show. So we're very keen to hear from you. How are you doing with. What's working. What's not what would you like us to cover? Whether it's on the master series or on the regular podcast, go to moonshots.io, share your thoughts, your feelings, your ideas with us.

 Particularly because you are listening to this show, it means you're a member and we're very grateful for your support. And we hope that you're enjoying this masterclass in habit, design habit forming, and here's the news listeners. We have not finished on this third part of the show. We are getting into the business end of the season.

We are getting into how we are going to make this part of our day habit design. And we got three more clips. We're going to get really into how. To stick, to [01:03:00] sustain, grow and improve your habit design and mark, where do we start this very practical, pragmatic approach to habit for me? Yeah. I feel inspired Mike.

I'm really understanding habits and I know that they're going to be a benefit for me, but now me and the listeners, we want to dig into how we're going to adopt them and become active things that we can complete every single day. And what better way to start this part of our episode on habits, Mike and hearing again from Mr.

Charles, Duhigg on how to create. There's been a lot of experiments that have looked at how unrelated the reward has to be from the activity, or should be one of the interesting things about eating chocolate is that it's actually a similar type of reward to working out because of both these very physical sensations, the same areas of your brain, essentially light up when you're exercising as when you're eating chocolate.

Although it seems like very dissimilar reward. [01:04:00] It's actually very similar from a neurological perspective. Now what happens over time is that chocolate is this extrinsic reward, right? You're eating it and it tastes good over time. Your brain will learn that there's intrinsic rewards from exercise.

There's endorphins, there's endocannabinoids. These neurotransmitters that are released by physical activity and your brain will begin to learn that you don't need the chocolate. In fact, what this German study found is that. About half the people who use this started exercising habitually three months later.

And about a month later, almost 60% of them had stopped eating the chocolate just on their own. And that's because their brain had essentially learned there's an intrinsic reward from physical activity. That makes me feel good. But to jumpstart that process, sometimes you need an extrinsic reward like chocolate, so many things to unpack in what you just said.

 We typically think that attitude first, then behavior. In other words, I need to really let me just, okay. I know that this is important. Now I'm going to do it this month [01:05:00] and we need to get our attitudes marshal those resources and in the behavioral. Follow-up what you're saying is actually think of it as a system cue rewards and in a routine and behavior first, and then the attitude will follow it.

Absolutely. We know that's. Fake it until it becomes real. For some reason, it's almost seems like a little, off-putting there's no way that could work, but I love the system that you're describing, which is in whatever it takes to get you to the gym and to do it consistently do that. And your attitude will follow.

In fact, you may not even need that chocolate a month down the line. That's exactly right. And we know that in psychology, as there's this whole field of called essentially self-fulfilling mental image, right? If I if I behave that I am a good person, eventually I actually start thinking like a good person.

Similarly if I can convince you to smile more each day, even if you're not happy, you're going to end up actually being happier. We look to ourselves for clues as to who we are. And if you can create the habit, one of the [01:06:00] things that's interesting about habit is that we know from. Habits themselves tend to inform our self-image very little.

You take a shower every morning. You don't even think about what that really means. Come on. You don't walk around thinking I'm the cleanest guy in here. That's so proud of that, right? Because we tend to discount habits in terms of what they say to ourselves about ourselves. And yet the cumulative net effect of the behavior spills over into everything else in our lives.

It changes our self-image and that's when the habit becomes self-fulfilling that's when it creates a chain reaction that causes other habits to start to change. Wow. It's this kind of, you almost notice my listening to Charles Duhigg there, that there is a kind of continuity of behaviors.

Mental models. But what he starts to introduce is rewards as well, which is a really interesting build on how we actually adopt [01:07:00] positive habits in our lives. Isn't it? Going back to the breakdown you had from James clear, then the metaphor that you were using was the act of journaling, making it attractive, easy you break it down.

What ends up happening by the end is it becomes quite satisfying. And I think that's the reward. The do here is talking about it in that clip. Once you can identify the reward that you get from acting in a certain way, in this case, perhaps journaling or perhaps exercising, that then becomes a real carrot on a stick to then go out and want to continue it every single day.

So identifying what rewards work well for you. And putting that into that routine and that habit is how you try and make those things stick. And I think there's these two big parts there's maybe no, actually now I think [01:08:00] about it, maybe there's three, maybe it's okay, what happens do I want?

Then you start to adopt them and then you start to improve them and fine tune them. That seems to be like the big meta pattern. And I think what we're seeing here is with Doogie he's really focusing us on how to create the habit. And I think that once you've got that thought, we've got this great clip coming up from Robin Sharma, who really gets into the, almost the science of the adoption once you've decided to create a habit and we're going to get there in a second.

And I think what's really important to signpost here is. Once you've identified the habits that you want to create, and hopefully we've given you lots of inspiration of such as winning the morning to win the day, lots of stuff there, or whether it's diet from Tom Brady, lots and lots for you to [01:09:00] to get some inspiration for there.

But you might find there as many things across that personal and professional part of your life that you can. And really, I encourage you to think about anything and everything can become a habit. Don't just think about it as the work that you do. But now I think we're primed and ready to get into a three-part installation of habits.

And this is pretty fun, isn't it? Because we've not done a show on Robin Sharma. How did you think about this installation piece before we play it? How should we ready our brains to hear this message mark? I think this clip that's coming up from Robin Sharma is a very practical one and it breaks down a similar theme that I think James Claire's helping us understand, which is about 1% better each day.

And do HIG was just revealing to us. And as you built upon do his clip that not only can you identify and therefore reward your habits, [01:10:00] but you can also improve them and change those habits over time. This clip from Robin Sharma is actually about how to physically build them into a practice. And I think what he breaks down for us in this upcoming clip are the signposts that you and I and our listeners may well encounter and experience while trying to set up a brand new habit for the first time.

 With no further ado, let's have a listen to what Robin Sharma has to say about how to install a habit, the ritual plasticity, what is ritual plasticity mean? Just like there's, neuro-plasticity your habits, your routines and your rituals are plastic ritual plasticity. Here's a model that I'll explain.

Hopefully habit installation. First of all, every habit goes through three phases. [01:11:00] Number one, destruction, of course, it's going to be hard at first. You're destroying your neural pathway of the old habit and the emotional architecture of that old habit. Every routine or ritual or habit goes through.

Number one, destruction. Approximately 20 days, 66 days to install. Look at this from the starting point to anything you've learned today. You want to install as a habit from zero to 66 days. At 66 days, you will reach what researchers call automaticity. It'll be easy. You'll get up at 5:00 AM automatically you'll journal go the extra mile.

Practice your craft automatically, but you have to stay with her for 66 days. First, 20 days, approximately is phase number one, destruction phase number [01:12:00] two, confusion. After you've destroyed it. It's like a renovation. There's a mess. Now you're confused. It's normal. If you're confused. If you're confused, you're still thinking for yourself.

If you're confused, it means you're growing. Society says what's wrong with you. You're confused all the time. I'm suggesting to you. You're confused all the time because every single day you're disrupting who you used to be yesterday. And of course, society doesn't understand. You have the results. Very few have you've got to live and behave like very few do after confusion, stage number three, the final 20 days, approximately integration of the new house.

Destruction, of course, it's going to be hard for 20 days, confusion, phase two, messy in the middle. You're going to feel like [01:13:00] giving up. This won't make sense. It's new to you. Finally integration. You get to automaticity. It becomes a part of your new belief, your new way of being, it becomes easy. Here's the fascinating thing.

You only use willpower until you get to automaticity. This is the secret of the great athletes. They're spending all this energy on willpower just to install the routine. Once the routine becomes automatic, the exciting thing is they free up their willpower for their next routine to be installed. Missy and the middleman messy in the middle of.

 How good has Robin Sharma done? How good is that job of breaking down, creating, and understanding and building new habits? It is because I think the good news is you're onto [01:14:00] something worthwhile if it's hard. And I love how he talks about destruction. What I I started having a mega three vitamins in the mornings and it's still on my daily to-do list because I'm into that integration phase of the habit design.

 I still, sometimes I leave daily habits in my, to do for not weeks or months, but for years. It's what I think is quite Nice about Robin Sharma's work. And this is he's obviously an author Mike that we'll be digging into on the moonshot as well. Oh, 5:00 AM club. It might be a little book that some people have heard of he's only a small time author.

 But what I really enjoy about his work on these three phases is the. But I [01:15:00] think we can all feel as we think about sending up a habit, because how many times have you thought about creating a new habit, Mike, but maybe fallen off in the first 20 ish days destruction phase, because it's either, maybe a bit too hard, or in fact you might get into stage two when you're trying to make it, install it as a practice, but then everything's getting confusing, messy, stressful.

So you refer back to your previous life. What I love by the time you reach the automaticity point after the 60 days, 66 days freeing up the willpower, I think is a really encouraging moment. Isn't it? Yeah. It's not only calling out that. Yeah. It's going to get a little bit tough, but the point is, once you get to that, You can go out and maybe create a new habit because you've submit.

Yeah. And I feel like a lot of, I relate to a lot of things being automatic, cold showers, journaling, exercising[01:16:00] for me I, I really feel that I have I don't spend a lot of effort convincing myself to get into bed early or to journal in the morning. In fact, I would say when I don't do it, something feels a little off.

I agree. Me too, because I've spent so much time. Yes. When you don't do it, you feel as though something's undone. Yeah. But it's interesting, isn't it? In largely what Robin Sharma's saying is look guys three months before you've really got to. Automaticity like where it's just an automated part of your day, such that you miss it when it's not there such that it's a natural thought to do.

And there's no I don't really want to do it. You it's like after three months you're totally convinced of the value of a habit. And what I think is you didn't get this new energy to either tweak and fine tune or move on introducing other [01:17:00] habits that you want to make part of your day.

I think it's, I think it's really valuable insight to have if you're starting a new habit, I would say go out there and read Robert Sharma's 5:00 AM club. Get that thinking into your mind, because I think the relief that you will find is when you're at like day 15 and it's still feeling uncomfortable, you can be like, yep.

I expected that. I'm totally comfortable with accepting that this is still uncomfortable and. I I bet you he has this chart the 66 day minimum before you get to automatic habits. I bet you so many people quit before 66 days. And I bet you it's front-loaded I bet you that every gym experiences, no matter where you are in the world, lots of people coming in January to get themselves back into shape for the [01:18:00] new year's resolutions and by March, what do you reckon?

Half. Maybe even 80% of people have fully abandoned the new habit. They just couldn't get through the habit installation protocol as Robert Scharmer calls it. What do you think? I totally agree. And I think it's worth remembering that once you get to that point, once you've installed it integrated, suddenly just becomes an automatic thing that you don't even need to put an effort into.

 Totally agree. Totally agree. We've got one more clip mark, and it would only be fitting that we give the floor for a second time in this show to Mr. Steven Covey, who. He was probably authored the ultimate time. Seven habits of highly effective people. It would be amazing to kit Robin Sharma James clear and Stephen Covey in the same room.

Can you imagine [01:19:00] that this would be a pretty great dinner party? That would be great. I know that we could leave that dinner party knowing some amazing tips, but hopefully you and our listeners, we've all learned a lot in this show. So like you say, Mike, let's hear one more time from Stephen Covey, inspiring us to think about our habits every day and focus on continuous improvement.

Let me share with you a few thoughts and challenges to encourage you in the process of developing these habits. One of the most important things you can do is to share these ideas with others, with your family, with your friends and associates, don't just retell what you've learned, but talk about the insights you've acquired and the ideas that you want to implement.

'cause that's where the real learning takes place. It is in the teaching. And then the sharing get with a coach or someone who is also working on these habits, set a specific time to get together [01:20:00] and keep that date, share insights into what has worked for you and what is not discover together, how you can overcome the challenges you face in developing all of these habits, set goals to improve in specific areas.

Focus on a single habit. Look over your materials, read and reflect on how you can improve in this habit. Revisit the commitments you've made to yourself throughout the course. Don't try to change everything all at once. Listen with your heart, determine those things that are most important for you to work on.

Right now, remember, don't give up be patient. A strong character is not developed overnight. Choose to live your life based upon correct principles. All of the seven habits are based on universal principles, which have endured throughout the ages. Live the habits, work within your circle of [01:21:00] influence and become a transition figure and your work, your community, and your family set aside time to go to a quiet place to really think about your mission.

What is it you stand for? What is your purpose? What are your values? Keep working through your mission statement until it inspires you, then live by your mission. Choose to put first things first, search for a win-win in every situation. Learn to stop and listen to others first. Listen with your heart value differences.

Look at differences as the springboard to finding the third alternative. Finally remember to always sharpen the, saw to renew yourself in a very balanced way. The power of these habits is in the doing in the living in the continuous day by day improvements. It's a [01:22:00] constant effort. We need to make these habits.

And these principles are part of our very life. We must pay the price by actually living them rather than just understanding them intellectually. I love the quote from TSL yet. Think about this. He once said we must never cease from exploring. And the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we began and know the place for the first time.

 In a very real sense, you already know these habits in your heart. The exciting thing is to embark on a lifelong adventure and exciting time of literally internalizing them and living them and experiencing the [01:23:00] magnificent fruits that come in the totality of our lives. That might just be the most moonshot clip ever recorded in history.

Mark never cease exploring live their habits, improve their habits. Be curious and explore right until the very end. Wasn't that a mixture of a very good reminder and a very big inspiration, a huge reminder, not just of the individuals that we've heard from in today's episode on habits, Mike, but also references to behaviors that somebody like Matthew McConaughey broke down for us, where we revisit our commitments, as well as a reminder on James Claire's notes on the fact that it's not overnight [01:24:00] success that you're unnecessarily striving towards, but instead it's a continual process and journey of exploration and experience that you should really try and enjoy along the way.

 Stephen Covey right there. He's. Fully wrapped up the idea of habits for us. He most certainly has. And I find myself at the end of the show feeling so invigorated and reminded that when in doubt, be in the moment, focus on the positive habits that you have totally at your discretion at your control and build from there.

 That is a very good reminder, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I think the main lesson that I've taken away from today's episode is the fact that it's totally ownable by me. I can control my reactions. I can control these habits. It's up [01:25:00] to me to cement them into automaticity as Robin Sharma says, But the practices and the behaviors that we've learned from all of these different men, shelters and authors and individuals from today really brings to life for me, Mike this idea that it's something I can work on day by day.

And this reminder, I'm even gonna say this relief, that it's not something that necessarily will happen overnight, but it's something that I will see improvements on day by day, 1%, every single day. It's pretty rewarding and relief relieving isn't it is. It is it really isn't. And remember that it's very much part of thinking about taking control of what you want to do in the day, understanding that you have to build that system and continuously work on it and improve it and be patient to harvest[01:26:00] the fruits of.

Good habit design or mark. This was absolutely epic. As far as the master series goes. I feel like I was trying to be so careful not to go on for too long about each of these, but there was just so much good stuff from so many different people about how we can create shape, retain, grow, and improve our habits.

I feel like we've given it a good nudge today. Don't you? Yeah. This felt like a pretty comprehensive look at how to inspire to understand. And like you say, adopt each of these habits, your practices and cycles into our lives. For me, my, the thing that I'm also going to remember is to try and just tackle a small number of them at a time, rather than trying to tackle everything all at once.

 What Covey's calling out there is you can improve the mood day by day. So let's do the hard work. Let's take time. Let's do it properly. [01:27:00] And the benefit. Over that period of time as Robin Sharma says, 66 days will then start to pay off in the long run. They certainly will. Mark, thank you to you. For coming on this journey with me into the world of habit design, it was great to return to some classics, enter some new superstars to inspire us.

And thank you to you. Our members, we are so grateful for your support, and we hope that you have really enjoyed this special show on habit design, where we have spent the last 90 minutes covering some very important ground to give you a master class in how to build the right habits. And it started with inspiration from some of the greats from Charles Duhigg to somebody who is doing it every day on the football field, Tom Brady.

And what we learned is that Tim Ferriss found that so many Titans start by winning the [01:28:00] morning to win. Day. And then we went deep. We went into the work of Daniel Kahneman and of course, a more contemporary guru of a habit design James clear. He went back to back with none other than Stephen Covey, the author of seven habits of highly effective people.

It was there that we discovered that it is not only our choice, but that we can build systems for success habits that create wins every single morning and every single day. And lastly, we got into the adoption, the hard work of doing these habits every single day. We made sure that we follow this very important.

Of the 66 day minimum that habit installation protocol as termed by Robin charmer, make sure you distract you, install and integrate those habits until they become automatic. And remember that we gave the final thoughts of Stephen Covey, make sure this is a continuous [01:29:00] improvement, never C6 exploring, never ceased to challenge yourself to be the best version of yourself, because that is exactly what we're doing together.

We are learning out loud to be the very best we can be here together on the moonshots master series. Okay. That's a wrap.